1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to large-caliber gun breeches and, more particularly, to a rotatable gun breech capable of being aligned alternately with the ammunition magazine and gun barrel for various gun elevations and axes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Two examples of cartridge feeding and loading devices for light weapons utilizing a mechanism having a rotating member are described briefly below.
Hill U.S. Pat. No. 2,624,241 relates to that portion of a gun action mechanism which transfers cartridges from the magazine to the gun barrel. A transfer mechanism is provided which comprises a rotatable disk constructed to receive the cartridges singly in a slot or trough formed on one of its faces, and to rotate them through a 90 degree angle in alignment with the barrel bore so that they are successively inserted into the firing chamber with each actuation of a bolt.
Rieke U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,741 is directed to a cartridge feeding and loading device in which cartridges withdrawn from a cartridge belt are adapted to be moved by means of a stepwise driven follower in a stationary longitudinally extending conveyor passage. The cartridges are transferrable by means of an intermittently movable pusher from the conveyor passage into a corresponding bore of a rotatable disk. The disk is rotatable into an angular position which corresponds to the elevational position of the weapon and thereby of the weapon magazine. The pusher transfers the cartridge from the transfer disk into the magazine.
Neither of the patents briefly described above discloses a breech-loading device for a gun that transfers projectiles from the magazine to elevated positions of the weapon barrel by means of a rotatable cylinder with a through hole in the center thereof that allows the cylinder to be completely closed at the rear when aligned with the gun barrel without providing additional sliding hardware such as sleeves or end caps.